BREAKING NEWS

Feds waive law for border's environment impact report

CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press

Published
5:30 am CDT, Wednesday, April 2, 2008

McALLEN — The federal government does not have to explain how the border fence will affect the environment along the U.S.-Mexico border after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived a law requiring a final report on the fence's impact.

Members of the Texas Border Coalition were told in a conference call with federal officials Wednesday that they will not get the long-awaited final environmental impact statement on the fence. Homeland Security said it would work from a draft study.

Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, chairman of the coalition, said the group was told that some findings and mitigation studies would be made available to them, but not the comprehensive report required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

"What is it we don't want to show the world?" Foster said. "That makes one suspicious."

Last fall, the Department of Homeland Security released a massive draft environmental impact statement, with maps of possible fence routes and areas of environmental, historical and archaeological significance that would be studied in more detail for the final document. A public comment period followed when individuals, organizations and other government agencies submitted their concerns and suggestions for alternatives.

The National Environmental Policy Act was one of more than 30 laws Chertoff announced he was bypassing Tuesday.

Amy Kudwa, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, did not know what information would be made public or when.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Chertoff said his agency "is neither compromising its commitment to responsible environmental stewardship nor its commitment to solicit and respond to the needs of state, local and tribal governments, other agencies of the federal government and local residents."

But the move away from an established process concerned border-area officials and defenders of the environment.

Congress has mandated that the Department of Homeland Security have 670 miles of fencing in place along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of the year to protect against terrorism and stem the tide of illegal immigration. Congress gave Chertoff the authority to waive laws that impeded building the fence.

As of March 17, there were 309 miles of fencing in place. The waivers announced Tuesday cover about 470 miles of the border in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Resistance to the border fence has been strongest in South Texas, where towns sit above the Rio Grande and families have strong ties on both sides of the border.

More than 50 Texas property owners have been sued by the government to allow surveying for the fence to move ahead.